Has 'Miller Time' Arrived In New Orleans?

 

It's probably always "Miller Time" in some regards in New Orleans, but are the Saints ready to turn the backfield keys over to rookie Kendre Miller?

With Alvin Kamara suspended and Jamaal Williams hampered with a leg injury, indications are that not only will Miller make his season debut Sunday, but he'll log starter touches. While on the surface this would seem to be only a fill-in role until Kamara presumably returns next week, it could be more than that.

Miller, a TCU product, was drafted in the third round - the 71st pick overall - in the 2023 NFL Draft after a sensational career for the Horned Frogs. In 2022, he notched 1,399 yards and 17 touchdowns, leading TCU all the way to the National Championship Game. Many have been left to wonder how differently that game might have gone if Miller hadn't missed it with an injury. 

With New Orleans, Miller logged 22 carries in the preseason for 42 yards and scored a touchdown against the Chargers. He's been held out due to injury in the Saints' first two regular season games.

Kamara was also a third-round pick for the Saints, as he was selected 67th overall in 2017, so the team has gone to that well for a starter before. Mark Ingram was the starter that season, with Kamara playing second fiddle, but by 2018, Kamara was the lead back. 

As for Williams, he was a fourth-round pick for the Lions but signed with the Saints during the most recent offseason. His early opportunities with the Saints have not gone well, as the BYU product has recorded just 74 yards on 27 carries. 

It remains to be seen, but it would seem the opportunity is there for Miller to crack open a case of starts for the Saints. 

Just answer the question...

By now, everyone knows Marshawn Lynch doesn't like talking to the media.
He's made that perfectly clear.
And if it weren't for the fact that talking to reporters is part of being a professional athlete, that would be OK. But it is part of being a professional athlete.
Now a lot of fans who have never been a member of the media will say, "Aw, it doesn't matter. Just let him play the game."
They might even say, "Look, we don't care what he has to say. I just want to see him run the ball."
As a generality, that's false.
I get a report every day in my email listing the top stories on the Telegraph's website, meaning the stories that were visited the most times from various platforms. Some Georgia football story is almost always in the top 15, regardless of the fact that it's been a month since the Dawgs' last game and two months since the last game with real significance that even approaches the same ZIP code of Super Bowl magnitude. It'll be seven months until UGA takes the field again.
So that's an awful lot of people reading stories full of people answering reporters' questions. No game coverage, no previews for actual events.
All that aside, even if Lynch just really doesn't like talking to the media, we all have parts of our jobs we don't like. Nobody sits in high school dreaming of the day they can sit in staff meetings, listening to reports about ad revenue.
(Can't take credit for that thought. I heard it from a caller on the Rich Eisen Show.)
And the same is true of the reporters asking questions at events like Media Day. Sports reporting was something that I really loved doing, but it wasn't because of news conferences. There isn't a whole lot to enjoy about rushing to find a spot among a host of other reporters just to get the same quotes from the same people that every other reporter has.
No, people become sports reporters so they can cover exciting games, get interesting personal interviews and write interesting features. Covering press conferences is just part of the job.
The difference is, the rest of us don't get paid seven-figure salaries in the process, and we can't tell our bosses, "You know why I'm here," and skip the afternoon meeting.
So for our sake, just answer the questions.